The Barrow County Board of Commissioners took action Tuesday night to resolve a manpower shortage at Barrow County Emergency Services.

And for the second time this year, the commissioners voted to mothball an ambulance that has a welding problem that reportedly could pose safety risks to both emergency personnel and to patients.

Both actions were taken on unanimous votes that circumvented the leadership of commission Chairman Danny Yearwood, who has been accused of micromanaging the department and ordering the defective ambulance back into service after the BOC had voted for it to be sold.

Leading the board’s charge was commissioner Steve Worley, who said it isn’t the commissioners’ or chairman’s job to supersede the authority of department managers.

“It’s not our job to micromanage any department,” he said. “It’s not the chairman’s job to micromanage any department.
“It is our job to oversee those departments, to make sure they have what they need and make sure it’s going the way it’s supposed to go. Department (managers) are hired to run these departments.

“If we’re going to micromanage, we don’t need department heads. And if department heads can’t do the job they were hired to do, they need to step down.”

ADDITIONAL FIREFIGHTERS

The board’s actions Tuesday night were in response to concerns raised Nov. 2 by the Barrow County Professional Firefighters Association, which claimed the manpower shortage had “been kept from the public” and was “directly impacting the safety of the citizens and firefighters” by having fire engines manned by one instead of two firefighters.

Worley initially rebuffed the union’s concerns, but he made an about-race after a couple in his district told him the first fire engine responding to their Nov. 10 house fire had been manned by only one firefighter.

Tuesday night, in addition to addressing manpower and vehicle maintenance concerns raised by the union, he issued a personal apology.

“I apologize for us not having the adequate staff we needed,” he said. “I personally take responsibility for that, because I was elected to be put in this position to take care of our citizens, and as far as I’m concerned, I had a let-down point there.”
Worley came to the meeting armed with hard facts and a board majority.

After laying out the facts about the department’s high turnover this year and pointing out that an average of 2.6 employees per day are absent each day, Worley asked the board to approve three new firefighter/EMT positions for the department.

He said the funding would come from saving overtime, from eliminating a vacant training position, and, if necessary, from county reserves at the end of the fiscal year next September.
The measure passed with no further discussion.

UNSAFE AMBULANCE

Commissioner Ben Hendrix raised the issue about the defective ambulance.

“I thought that unit was already disposed of,” he said.

Interim Chief John Skinner, who also made a presentation about turnover and equipment, said that ambulance has had recurring problems and that the last company to fix it refused to guarantee its work.

“The box was coming loose,” Skinner said. “Wells were breaking from the chassis.”

FIRE TAX PROPOSAL

Worley also put on the table a proposal to reinstitute a separate fire tax for the operations of the firefighting function of the emergency services department.

The previous county administration in FY2007 consolidated the millage rates for the fire tax fund and the general fund and combined the revenues.

Good job Steve. The way this article reads, you all but told the Kommissioner to sit down, shut up and stop meddling. He's proven the only thing he's good at is angering employees and running of dedicated personnel.

And yes, he pretty much did tell the Kommissioner(s) to sit down, shut up and stop meddling. He actually runs the meetings which I find amusing. Yearwood just sits there like the lump on the log he is.

I find it interesting, they were going to put an ambulance with stress fractures back into service AFTER they had voted to surplus it and sell it. They had to vote AGAIN to sell this ambulance. Maybe this time, it will actually be taken out of service and sold.

As for the fire tax, the 1st to balk at the thought of re-instituting where the three that did away with it in the beginning; you know the three from prior administrations who are up for re-election next year. They need to go. Time for new blood.

A tax is a tax, who cares what it is called. A joke to try and place public safety on a seperate tax structure. Public hearings and notices will still be required if they were to try and raise the fire tax rate. What happens when the only thing supporting the fire department is a fire tax. It is subuject to the same exemptions and once the fire millage is maxed, no additional funds will be available. The general fund millage rate doesn't have a cap so funding would be available if our commissioners care about service.

When there was a fire tax, there was a SURPLUS of funds in the fire budget. At the time, the fire tax was done away with, there was over $200,000 that was rolled into the general budget. Speaks for itself.

At the time of the fire tax the department was not operating with 4 man stations, was not buying new trucks or equipment and the amount of funds generated from the maxed rate will not be sufficient to fund the department as the employees are suggesting it should be.

danny yearwood is doing a great job with what he came into if he would have continued on the same path as the previous administration we would be in a lot of trouble and then all of you would be crying about how much taxes had to be raised to pay for way to much government.

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